Attorney General Dustin McDaniel showed commendable restraint in suggesting that state Rep. Jon Hubbard is "angry" and "misguided." Hubbard's all of that, and so much more.

McDaniel was responding to insulting e-mails sent by Hubbard after he learned that McDaniel was offering a Spanish-language version of the attorney general's website. Some 200,000 Hispanics live in Arkansas, many of them, as McDaniel noted, paying taxes, serving in the military and otherwise being exemplary Arkansans.

"I cannot see any purpose for your pandering to Hispanics in Arkansas, whether it be to those here legally or illegally, unless you think that by doing so you might increase your chances of possibly winning their future vote," Hubbard wrote, in e-mails that also went to the media and his fellow Republicans in the legislature. He regretted, he said, that McDaniel, a Democrat was "not as passionate about representing the [non-Hispanic] people of Arkansas" as he was about "propping up" the person masquerading as president of the United States. (Hubbard is a Birther, claiming to believe that President Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen, and therefore ineligible to be president. All the evidence is to the contrary, but Obama is black, of course, and there's some suspicion that Birthers are troubled more by color than birthplace.)

For a public servant to provide service is not pandering. It's the way our government works, or is supposed to. Picking on a minority in order to win the support of bigots is pandering. There was a time when Democratic politicians did more of this, but Republicans are the principal practitioners now. Rep. Donna Hutchinson of Bella Vista asked Secretary of State Mark Martin to stop disseminating public information in Spanish, and Martin, also a Republican, happily agreed, until he learned that the law prevented him from full compliance with Hutchinson's request. The law is always sneaking up on Mark Martin.

The exchange with McDaniel shows that Hubbard doesn't understand the administrative process either. But a member of the state legislature must know something of government, mustn't he? Maybe the judicial process is the part that Hubbard gets. On reflection, we rather think not.

The rarified tastes of Trump cabinet members for private air travel continue to draw attention worth summarizing this morning as the president touts a tax plan that benefits the wealthy and which his own spokesman says he can't guarantee won't raise middle-class taxes. /more/

Arkansas attorneys general split on James Comey. You can probably guess which ones are praising him and which one is defending him. /more/

Arkansas Democrats will elect their national committeeman and committeewoman later this summer and I'm hearing a challenge could be made to Dustin McDaniel's re-election to the committeeman slot. Reason: party disloyalty. /more/

A Pennsylvania man hits it big on resale of Hillary Clinton's old car and Central High elections feature some political connections. Part of tonight's open line. /more/

Dustin McDaniel, the former Arkansas attorney general and erstwhile Democratic gubernatorial candidate, announced today that his private practice of McDaniel, Richardson and Calhoun, PLLC is registering as a lobbying firm with the Arkansas Ethics Commission. /more/

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We're sad to report that Doug Smith has decided to retire. Though he's been listed as an associate editor on our masthead for the last 22 years, he has in fact been the conscience of the Arkansas Times. He has written all but a handful of our unsigned editorials since we introduced an opinion page in 1992.

Last week, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel became the first elected statewide official to express support for same-sex marriage. His announcement came days before Circuit Judge Chris Piazza is expected to rule on a challenge to the state's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Soon after, a federal challenge of the law is expected to move forward. McDaniel has pledged to "zealously" defend the Arkansas Constitution but said he wanted the public to know where he stood.

Remarking as we were on the dreariness of this year's election campaigns, we failed to pay sufficient tribute to the NRA, one of the most unsavory and, in its predictability, dullest of the biennial participants in the passing political parade.

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I write Tuesday morning, before polls close on primary and judicial election contests.

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I confess that over the years I've wished a fall from grace upon a number of people. I've come to call it the "Trading Places Award." The recipient is someone who has shown no compassion or empathy for someone else in a tough situation.